A US aircraft carrier that collided with a cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea earlier this year remains in need of repairs eight months later. Photos show the damage is still there; it’s just been painted over.
Sailors spotted the damage to USS Harry S. Truman on Sunday during a celebration of the 250th anniversary of the establishment of the US Navy at Naval Station Norfolk in Virginia. Thousands of sailors attended the event, which featured a speech by President Donald Trump.
A photo of the Truman, which was captured by a sailor in attendance and shared with Business Insider, shows a massive Navy poster hanging from the carrier and covering the damage. The sailor, who spoke on condition of anonymity to share their observations from the event, said the poster blocked most angles of the damage.
The photo has gone viral on social media. The sign is believed to have been a Navy attempt to obscure the damage.
The Navy did not respond to Business Insider’s question about why the damage to the Truman has not yet been repaired and whether the sea service intentionally tried to cover it up with the sign.
It would not be the first time that optics have come into play when the Navy hosted Trump, who has long been heavily focused on the appearance of ships, from design to rust. During his first term in 2019, the White House requested that the sea service conceal the USS John S. McCain, a warship named after his late critic, for the president’s visit to Japan, where the destroyer was forward deployed at the time.
Collision in the Med
The carrier Truman collided with the merchant vessel Besiktas-M on February 12 while operating in the Mediterranean near Egypt’s Port Said. The Nimitz-class carrier had just been in the Red Sea, deployed as part of the Navy’s efforts to defend commercial shipping lanes from Houthi rebel attacks.
The Navy said Truman suffered external damage, including to a line handling space, the fantail, and the platform above a storage space. The exterior wall of two storage rooms and a maintenance space was also damaged.
Capt. Dave Snowden, Truman’s commanding officer at the time, who was later fired over the incident, said that the ship was fully mission-capable and conducted flight operations after the collision, but it still needed some repairs to continue its deployment.
The carrier sailed to a US naval base in Greece for an emergent repair availability, a standard repair process for unexpected incidents that allows ships to remain operational mid-deployment. By February 24, after days of repairs, Truman was back in the Mediterranean conducting routine flight operations. It later returned to the counter-Houthi mission.
The collision was one of several mishaps the Truman suffered during its deployment; it lost three F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, including one to a friendly fire incident. The aircraft are estimated to cost roughly $60 million apiece.
The Truman returned to Naval Station Norfolk from its eventful Middle East deployment in June. At some point prior to Sunday’s big event, the damage from the February collision was painted over to match the color of the ship’s hull.
The sailor who took the photo of the damage told Business Insider that if it doesn’t affect a ship’s capabilities, cosmetic damage repairs may be a lower priority.
It’s unclear why the damages have yet to be repaired, but the ship has a refueling and complex overhaul coming up; this is a mid-life process for the US fleet of nuclear-powered carriers that allows them to continue operating for another two decades. The vessel was commissioned in 1998, so that work is coming due.
Huntington Ingalls Industries, an American shipbuilding giant that does carrier work, was awarded a $913 million contract last year to complete the refueling and complex overhaul, which will take place at its Newport News facility.
HII did not immediately respond to Business Insider’s question about when the process is expected to begin or when it will be completed.
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